How do you improvise over chord progressions: 6+ ways to success

“How do you improvise over chord progressions?” is a common question I hear often from guitar players.

Have you wondered about this too?

In this video lesson, I explain one of my simple methods step by step to answer this question.

Many guitarists think knowing a scale or a few to improvise is enough. While only using guitar scales might work, there are a few problems:

• Your improvisation might sound too scaley and mechanical.
• You may hit the right spots but without knowing why they work.
• You’re limiting yourself
• Most importantly, you miss the main point.

Hint: the answer is already in the question…

That’s right – chords! Or, more specifically, chord tones (the notes that construct the chord).

How do you improvise over chord progressions? Answer: chord tones awareness

In this video, “How do you improvise over chord progressions”, I discuss what I call “chord tones awareness.”

Simply put, when you’re aware of the chord tones, your improvisation will match the chords in the background if you’re playing to a backing track.

The result will make you sound like you confidently know exactly what you’re doing.

You can use this to improvise over a backing track, but I demonstrated it using just a solo guitar in the video.

As I shared in a previous video, backing tracks have their own limitations. But with the “chord tones awareness” approach, you can learn better and create using just one guitar!

Yes, you can even compose your own solo guitar piece by combining two of the main elements of music: harmony (chords) and melody (scales).

I quickly reviewed the fundamental scales in the video, such as the major and minor pentatonic scales, before moving on to more complex concepts.

So, if you feel this is advanced, you should probably spend more time mastering these scales first. If you need any help with that – email me,

Oh, and if you’d like the PDF I show there with the diagrams – email me, and I’ll send it over!

You can watch the video here below. I’d love to know what you think – it would mean the world to me if you could leave your comments:​

To your success!
– Udi

PS
Ready to make fast progress with your guitar and music? Book a guitar chat with me here.